Ever thought about striking out on your own to become a "travailleur indépendant" or a freelance teacher in France? What are the steps? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Is it really for you? Read on, and we'll explore that together.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Prepare for the Worst and Get Paid

They are out there: the language schools that subcontract you and test your patience by innocently forgetting to pay you or outright ignoring your demands for payment. You could have shown up on time, worked 35-contact-hour work weeks, signed those presence sheets, sent those invoices but the money just doesn't appear in your bank account. A language school that is late on their payments does deserve a good, long, contemplative chin rub. They could be delaying your payment because the trainees' company hasn't paid them. Or they could also be in serious financial trouble. But in the end, language establishment directors who are late on payments should be hung by their baby toes.

In this post, I've provided three letters, in French, that go from "poor sad me I need the money" to the more firm: "remember, stupid, I haven't been paid" to the nasty "I'm going to sue if you don't pay me." Hopefully, they will help you prepare for the worst and save you a few cents on rope for the occasional baby-toe hanging.

P.J. : Copie du courrier du (date of the first and second letters you sent)

I was brought up to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. This applies to your life and your home. As a professional it applies to your job, your presentations and your projects. As a teacher, it applies to your classes. As a freelance teacher, it applies to your clients, your taxes and most importantly...your paycheck.

Author

Bethany Cagnol founded her own company in France which is to project management, training, and language skills assessment and enjoys organizing English Language Teacher conferences. She has been the Treasurer of IATEFL BESIG, on the IATEFL Conference Committee and is a past president of TESOL France. She has authored works for Cambridge University Press, Pearson and Cornelsen.
She has an MA in TEFL from the University of London and over 15 years of experience as a trainer in companies and in higher education establishments. Bethany delivers seminars to large groups, develops tailored, blended learning packages for companies and recruits talented trainers, translators, authors and editors to carry out major long- and short-term education-related projects.